Easter 2012

So I have finally clawed my way out from under the rock that I feel like I have been living under for the past month with the help of a little white pill I am so fond of these days... zofran I love you.  Things have been going on business as usual around our house thankfully, without much help from the mom.  I am so glad that I have such great kids.  We had a whole week off of school for spring break and I had all of these great plans about what we would do with all of those days off of school.  None of them happened.  Well I guess that isn't entirely true we did go to the park one day and got some of the spring cleaning chores checked off our list, but mostly we just hung out at home and took things easy.  We did get our Easter eggs dyed one afternoon and that was really fun.

each kid gets a dozen eggs to dye.  Here are most of them.  

We made special arrangements with the Easter bunny to come on Saturday because of Jake having to work on Easter.  It kinda worked out better that way then anyway cause then all of the sugar rush was over way before Sunday and church.  I didn't get any picture of the actual easter egg hunt because we did it first thing and I was barely able to watch myself let alone take any pictures.  But the best thing the Easter bunny left us this year were these little mini green houses that the kids wanted to plant first thing after the egg hunt.  I did manage to get a few pictures of this....

first they had to get the dirt pellets wet and put them in the cup planters.

then plant the seeds.

Here is Ashton with the "boys" planter.  It has mini vegetable plants in it.  Tomato, cucumber, and pepper.  Jake helped him get everything just right.

Here are Lexie and Abbie with the "girls" planter.  It has flowers.  I don't remember what kind except for forget me nots.  Luckily for me Lexie helped Abbie and I didn't have to do anything but watch them have a good time and take a few pictures.  I was really surprised at how fast some of the seeds sprouted, some of the girls seeds sprouted the very next day.  

Overall we had a good holiday.  Too bad I didn't get more pictures....

Yucky Mess

So about a month ago on a day when the kids had a early release day (they get out of school 2 hours early) the girls were playing in the basement while we were waiting for Ashton to get home from school.  Out of no where Abbie came running to me while I was doing some dishes and told me that all of her big coloring books were wet and that "someone" had colored on the wall with a green marker, but it wasn't her.  I immediately went to investigate and found soaking wet carpet and mold.  YUCK!  I was so grossed out.  It was behind our big Ikea shelving unit full of toys.  We started moving baskets and baskets of toys so that we could move the shelf to see what was going on.  This is what we found.

don't you just love Abbie's description of the mold- coloring on the wall.  

So first things first we had to contact our landlord, no big deal except he lives in Vegas and can't really do anything from there.  He is great to work with though and got somebody here to look at it the next day.  After some confusion about which company was doing what we now have a huge mess in our basement which they are coming today to fix.  We had to let it sit for a while with a dehumidifier helping to dry things out.  Here is what we are dealing with now...

Luckily for us it wasn't as bad as it seemed at first.  There was only superficial mold all of the structural things were fine.  The plumbing guy said we caught it really quickly.  That made me feel better because I was thinking what a terrible housekeeper I must be to have let it get as far as it did.  Now if i could just get my house back to normal.  This is my test, patience. I can't do anything to hurry people along, it isn't "my" house and I am not footing the bill so I can't get anyone to work faster.  And my basement in a continual mess of toys that have no real home while we wait for it to get fixed.  Oh and the bottom of our shelves were wet and we had to try and dry that out too, so the toys couldn't be put back into it because it is propped against the pool table (not ours but came with the house, wish it wasn't there) drying out.  I think it is salvageable but not sure yet.  

What caused it all you might ask?  The value to the sprinklers outside has been leaking ever since we moved in and probably before that.  We blew out the lines in the fall and turned off the valve just like we should have, but it has been leaking all winter and freezing.  When it started warming up outside the ice melted and had no where else to go but into our house.  The valve got replaced and we should be fine once the wall gets patched up.  

Books, books, books,

One thing that I really, really wanted to give my kids is the love of reading.  I have always loved getting lost in a good book, and I wanted my kids to love doing the same thing.  I think that we are well on our way to a family who loves books.  Ashton brought home a book order from school the other day and it had  a huge set of Magic Treehouse books in it.  They are slightly above his level right now, but he will be there soon enough so I couldn't refuse getting them they were such a good deal.  He didn't know what I had ordered exactly, but he sure was excited when he brought home his books.  They barely fit in his backpack!  He lined them all up like this so that he could find his favorites.

Now the question, do I start reading them to him, or wait and let him read them when he gets there.  It won't be too much longer, I'm thinking this summer.  

Spring has come...already!

This winter has been nothing like what we expected when moving to Minnesota.  We were warned again and again about how terrible the winters can be and how cold it was going to be.  Well, I guess that we lucked out for the most part.  We had a very mild winter and now we have been blessed with some unseasonably warm weather for March.  We have had a beautiful week of 70 to 80 degree weather.  I am told that most of the time there is still snow on the ground for most of March so this is somewhat of a treat.  We had to take advantage of that and headed to the park on Saturday.    We had a picnic and then played for a while.  It was a fun afternoon.  

eating lunch

my little poser. 

Lexie's balancing act

Ashton got hot and went looking for some shade... We spent about 2 hours at the park and then headed for home as the humidity climbed and it was just too hot.  

Hopefully this nice weather sticks around.  I want to be outside enjoying time with my family. 

Eagle Center

On Saturday we finally made the trip to the National Eagle Center in Wabasha.  We have been trying to get here since last fall when we first found out that they had an eagle center in Wabasha.  They do a presentation all about eagles a few times a day and the one other time that we tried to go we missed the last show by just a few minutes and we decided it wasn't worth paying to go in if we couldn't see the show and I am glad that we waited and tried again.  It was, by far the best part of the the whole thing.  Here we are posing with Was'aka.

(All of the birds that they have there have been injured somehow and can't live in the wild because they can't fly or can't see well enough to hunt for food so they keep them there to help educate people. )

They have lots of kid friendly exhibits in the center and we spent about an hour going through them while we waited for the show to start.  They had a place where you can see the eagles up close 

angel

donald (he's the only golden eagle)

columbia

harriet

and Was'aka

This was really cool, at one point when we were in this room, angel started calling out and that started all the other birds calling out too.  The handlers said that she could see another wild eagle somewhere out the window and that she was warning them to stay away because this was their territory.  

Here are Jake, Abbie and Ashton reading about each different eagle. 

The program was pretty cool, the guy was pretty entertaining and keep everyone laughing, even if sometimes it was grudgingly.  He picked Lexie out of the crowd to help with part of the presentation.  

(as you can see she was a bit reluctant at first)

He was comparing the size of human eyes to the size of eagle eyes compared to the size of our bodies.  

Her sunglasses are the size that an eagle would need.  Then he had her read an "eye chart" with the glasses on.  It read "I can't see a thing" and he made a funny joke about it.  

He passed around a bunch of stuff for us to look at, an eagle skull, some feathers, tons of pictures and a pair of the gloves that they use when holding an eagle.  Then the real fun began, he brought out an eagle and to feed while we got to watch.

He let the audience pick who we wanted to see eat, and we picked Harriet.  Which ended up being a good choice because the birds are really smart, and she knows that on Sundays they get rat for their food, and apparently that tastes really good to eagles because sometimes they won't eat very much on Saturday because they are waiting for the rat the next day.  Well she was pretty picky about what she would eat and didn't eat much (as they expected) so then they brought out Was'aka instead.  He hasn't been there very long and still eats like a wild eagle.  If they give him food he is going to eat every bit because his instinct tells him that he doesn't know when he will get more food.  So we got to watch two birds eat instead of one.  

here she is turning down the food he is trying to give her...

and here she is eating some of it.  

Here is Was'aka with his wings spread.  (The handler didn't do this with Harriet because she had only half of her left wing because she was hit by a car) It was pretty cool. And he gobbled up every piece of food that he was offered.  

and then promptly took a bath when he was finished....

and here the kids are posing with angel right before we left.  

We ended up buying a membership because the kids had such a good time so that we can go back again and again.  Oh, and my point and shoot camera broke right in the middle of the presentation so I had to switch to my cell phone camera.  I was not a happy camper.  At least we have another one, we have lots of camera around this place....

Frozen Lake Pepin

With outage schedule in full force around our house, we don't get to see a whole lot of Jake right now.  He has Saturdays off and we have been trying to do something fun as a family to make the most of the time we do get together.  This last Saturday we didn't really have a plan for what we were going to do, but just wanted to get out of the house.  So we started driving not really having a destination (sometimes that is the best kind of drive, at least in my opinion).  We ended up driving around Lake Pepin.  It sure is a different drive in the winter verses the summer or fall when the roads are absolutely crazy with other cars.  And you can see the river much better since the trees have no leaves.
Anyway, when we got around to Maiden Rock on the Wisconsin side we could see tons of people out ice fishing on the lake.  Jake found the boat dock that the people were using to get out on the ice and drove us out too.  At first we just parked on the side of the lake and walked a little ways out onto the ice with the kids.  Abbie was scared to death, when we parked the car we were on the ice and we told the kids that and to be careful because it would probably be slippery.  Abbie would not move once she was out on the ice.  She was sure that she was going to fall right in.

Here she is tip-toeing around because she was scared.

Here is her smile to prove that after some convincing she had a good time running around out there too just like the other kids.  

It was a bright sunny day as you can tell and we had a hard time getting good pics of the kids because no matter which way you looked it was too bright.  

This is one of my favorites they were trying so hard to help me get a good one.  Too bad all I had was my phone to take pictures with.

But we did manage at least one decent one.  

I took one of Jake since everybody we saw looked at him like he was crazy, but then he gets that a lot here because he always wears shorts unless he is at work.  

And he took one of me when I was trying to take one of him.  

Here are a few more of the kids running around like crazy people.  Good thing all of the ice fishers were way out there still because the kids were being totally crazy.

After playing around for a while, we loaded back into the car.  Then Jake drove us further out onto the ice and I have to admit I was nervous being that far out on the water in the car, I don't know why exactly but I didn't like being in the car out on the ice.  Being on foot felt much safer, but I'm sure it really is.  

With no real plans we ended up with a really fun afternoon.  The kids have already asked if and when we can do it again.  I don't know if we will get another chance this winter, it is just too warm.  The ice won't stay thick enough for much longer.  

One last picture from our day.  Jake had on his toes shoes and when I noticed his footprints I had to take a picture of one.  It looks like someone was walking around barefoot.

Snow Fun

This winter has been a little light on the snow.  There have only been a couple of snowfalls that have actually amounted to something the kids could actually go out and play in.  I'm told that this winter is extremely mild for Minnesota and not to get too comfortable because next winter will be much worse.  All I have to say is "we'll see".   We had a snow storm at the end of January that finally amounted to enough snow to play in.  The kids excitedly bundled up for a fun afternoon in the snow.  They had a great time trying to build an igloo.

I even let them use my bread pans to make the ice bricks for the igloo.  Too bad there wasn't nearly enough snow.

I told Ashton he had to hold still so I could get a picture of him.  This is what I got, not exactly what I had in mind, but at least he isn't blurry like he was in most of the others.... 

My rosy cheeked girl.  

They stayed outside for a couple of hours.  But even Abbie never complained about being cold.  

Gratitude

I read this quote on another blog the other day and it really stuck out to me.  Sometimes I feel like I focus in on the things that I don't have WAY too much and forget to be thankful for the things that I DO have.  Just thought I would share....

Gratitude is a quality I have found in every happy person I know. It is a quality that instantly makes a person more likable and more at peace. Where there is an abundance of this virtue, there is happiness. Where there is an absence of this virtue, there is often sadness, resentment and futility .... If we only look around us, there are a thousand reason for us not to be happy ... the more we focus on the things we don't have, the more unhappy and more resentful we become.  -- Joseph B. Wirthlin (Live in Thanksgiving Daily, Ensign, September 2001)

Something Green

It may be winter in Minne"snow"ta but something green is growing in my house. (That sounds a little scary I know, but it's a good thing) I got a small herb garden from "santa" and just couldn't wait until spring to plant my seeds.  I figured they would be inside and protected from the cold so they should grow, right?

Yup, they grew!! I am so happy that I have a little something green in my house since everything around looks like the background in this picture.  Gray and white.  Now I can have fresh cilantro, basil and oregano whenever I want.  Well, maybe not yet, but definitely soon.  It makes me happy to have a little green these days, can't wait for spring to come.  Too bad I'm told it isn't very close yet....

Last Meal

A spur of the moment shopping indulgence during my last grocery shopping trip turned into a fun family tradition that we started Wednesday night.  Normally I go to the grocery store with as few people as possible because that translates into less money spent.  Less kids begging for things = Less junk in the cart.  But Tuesday, Jake had the day off and he, Abbie and I headed out to the store.  We were browsing the meat section looking for any good deals we could find on beef, when Jake happened upon some crab legs that were on sale.  We decided to go ahead and splurge this once since we hardly ever eat food like because it costs so dang much.  Then I had to come up with a way to fit it into our dinner menu. (That I had already planned out for the next weeks)  Not to hard, but still.  Then the perfect plan came to me.  Why not have a fun "last meal" before Jake has to start on the outage schedule at the power plant.  That is happening next week, he will be working 6 days a week, 12 1/2 hours a day (that ends up being 75 hours a week) until the first part of April.  Working that much leaves little time for anything else and the kids really end up missing their dad by the end.
So Jake and I have decided that right before each outage at the plant we will have one super fun meal like this.  A "last meal" of sorts to celebrate family meals together until work slows down and life returns to normal....  And boy was it ever a hit with the kids.  They ate every last bit of crab they could dig from the shells.

It was a fun night and I can't wait to come up with what we will do for the next "last meal" I only have 6 months or so to come up with an idea.